Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can't get to with a simple Google query. In his weekly Search Research column, Russell issues a search challenge, then follows up later in the week with his solution—using whatever search technology and methodology fits the bill. This week's challenge: who sculpted the most beautiful woman in California?

It is said that the most beautiful woman in California during the last decade of the 1800's was truly a Venus in human form.

The tale says that she was perfectly captured in a statue made by a German-born sculptor (not the one above). But only a few years after she was rendered in marble, she was tragically murdered by a jealous lover on the street in front of her home. He then turned the gun on himself in a murder-suicide.

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Could this story possibly be true? (I suspect it is, but being pro-searchers, we want details.)

Three questions leap to mind:

1. Who was the sculptor of the most beautiful woman in California?

2. Where's that statue now?

3. What was the model's first name and last name?

(Note that the statue shown in the illustration above is NOT the sculpture in question. Can you find an image of the sculpture in the story?)

As usual, please tell us HOW you found the answers to these questions. (In particular, what resources did you use.) And say about how long it took you to find the answers.

Daniel M. Russell studies the way people search and research—an anthropologist of search, if you will. You can read more from Russell on his SearchReSearch blog, and stay tuned for his weekly challenges (and answers) here on Lifehacker.